Intrigue

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A sultry, exotic scent that inspires devious plotting and clandestine affairs. It is a scent painted in artifice, veiled in deceit, and slithering with whispered secrets. Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.

Wet on WristApparently I rubbed a freshly sharpened pencil across my wrists. The wood really overpowers any discernible cocoa/fig, but they must be keeping the scent sweet rather than straight wood.

Dry DownAfter 10 minutes this goes blissfully soft fruit and wood, really gentle. Intrigue is a good name, this is what an exotic librarian in a spy film would smell like. Different tries have gotten different results, some days more woody, some days more chocolaty.

FadeBlend lasts for about an hour before drying into a really nice palm wood (a little fruity, sweet wood) with a hint of chocolate.

FeelSultry and swank when it is palm/cocoa/fig, bookish if it goes pencil shavings. Really a toss up for what I'll get on any given day. Could smell marvelous on men, but soft and warm enough for a woman.

Final ThoughtsNot going to be buying it again unless my Imp settles into more palm/cocoa and less wood. Woodsy smells tend to amp on me, and while I like them, this isn't forest, this is just wood.

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On my wrist: Smooth and quite subtle. This is a very warm, creamy and rich scent, and Intrigue is just the right name for it. The woods, the cocoa and the black palm compliment each other very well. It's a definite keeper.

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Wet: Like.. black coconut, very dry, with oak wood and a hint of dusty cocoa powder.

Dry: This is dry sandalwood and dried coconut meat on me. Not much cocoa or fig. This reminds me of Kathmandu and Shroud, but this scent is more.. greasy, likr actual greasepaint. Guess it's the palm oil. If I had to compare it to a scent it's macadamia butter from Body Shop. Or simply any cocoa and shea butter with a nutty undertone.

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When I first put this on, I was pretty worried, because I got a strong cedar note -- my usual #2 pencil/hamster cage issue. And there was some dry, dusty, unsweetened cocoa, not unlike the cocoa note in How Doth the Little Crocodile. But then that faded and…

Whoa! It disappeared completely, just like Gomorrah does on me! I assume that’s the date/palm component. I asked my husband if maybe I smell like dates naturally, and that’s why they disappear on me. He said he’d have to think on that.

Anyway, eventually I started to get a fig note (more dried than fresh, but not over-sweet), so I can smell it again! It’s still very close-to-the-skin for me. I put extra on, but it remains very subtle and warm and skinlike.

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Wet The first sniffs were chocolate-ish and sweet but nothing I could positively identify. After a minute the hint of something stronger emerged.

Drying In the drydown this changed slightly from one sniff to the next; sometimes chocolate, sometimes an unknown base-type note. As I wrote on my notecard: "puzzling but pleasant". Forty minutes after application I couldn't decide whether I smelled food or floral, but I knew I liked it. After an hour it settled into a faint chocolatey scent and faded away slowly.

I was quite pleased to see the list for this oil. Cocoa is close enough to chocolate that I wasn't imagining things, and my two previous encounters with fig were positive. Black palm is an unknown and "shadowy wooded notes" could be a lot of things, but I wouldn't call this scent nefarious or deceitful; on me it was mischievious, almost playful. This freebie is a possible bottle candidate.

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A sultry, exotic scent that inspires devious plotting and clandestine affairs. It is a scent painted in artifice, veiled in deceit, and slithering with whispered secrets. Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.

I totally got the palm, a little fig and the wooded notes. I also quite a bit of cedar. No cocoa notes for me at all. Very woodsy - not unpleasant, kind of a clean woodsy smell. Not for me, but it's a good one if you wanted a clean kind of "foresty" smell.

This is one of those rare ones for me that smelled exactly the same out of the imp, during the wet phase, and during the dry down. The notes didn't change for me at all.

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First off, I have to apologize and thank whomever frimped this to me. It was never on my radar and I was kind of disgruntled when it showed up in a package. I'm sorry. I really am. It's been over a year and I'm finally trying it. I regret not trying it before! Thank you, frimper, for having thrown this in the box.

I'm really not sure what I'm smelling, here. It smelled soapy, in the bottle, so I didn't have high hopes for it. My dog smelled the change, first. She came in and started /staring at me/. And then it hit me. Something nice and soft, delicate and spicy. It kind of lurks in the background, shadowy but sweet. Maybe palm trees, but not beaches. A little woody, like oak. And ... a buttery sweetness, like coconut.

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At first, this smells more incensey than anything. Dries to a dusty cocoa incense, which fades pretty fast. There's a slight sour quality to the blend, not sure what may be causing it. Nice to try, but not for me.

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Wet: I definitely smell the fig right off the bat. Soft, sweet, and gummy.

Drydown/Dry: A touch of cocoa adds more sugary sweetness and the fig becomes a bit brighter/less soft. There’s a hint of green in there adding to the brightness. The fig stays dominant, followed by the cocoa. It’s a nicely balanced scent, but ultimately it’s a bit too sweet for my liking.

6 out of 10 bones

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Wow, this is gorgeous. It's woody, but so soft! I get a touch of something a but buttery, almost like shea butter? I'm guessing that would be the palm. The fig isn't prominent, it just peeks out to add a touch of sweetness in the middle stages. The cocoa is lovely, not heavy or chocolate smelling at all, it just adds a kind of fuzzy warm softness.

This reminds me a lot of Velvet, but it is even softer. I mean that in both the throw of the scent, and also the feel of it. It's like a fleece blanket wrapping around you. Warm, dark, fuzzy... I really really like this one.

Fans of Velvet and Black Temple Burlesque Troupe will likely love this one.

Edit: This occasionally smells too buttery for me, and the black palm is a very odd vegetable-like note that doesn't always agree with me. So no bottle of this, but I still like it.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Teaker

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Got this one as a bonus sample! Which is interesting, because I wouldn't have picked this one out on my own. Smells a lot like fruit candy sitting in an old wooden drawer. A little powdery, with a tiny touch of the cocoa. The fruit is really what jumps out at me, but the powder and cocoa make it a somewhat artificial-feeling fruit. Oh man, you know what it reminds me of?? Those Wonka Bottlecap candies. Grape soda-flavored bottlecaps with a background of cocoa and wood. That isn't a bad thing, though. For me, it's really nostalgic (I looooooved those bottlecaps as a kid). ...Oh wow, an hour later, the cocoa's taking over. An hour and a half in, cedar's coming through. and two hours in, the fruitiness has died down considerably. I think I would have preferred another wood in this instead of cedar, as it is quite the pencil-shavings type of cedar. Thankfully though, it begins to die down and blend better with everything else shortly after it makes a screeching appearance. Like the reviewer above, I sometimes get an odd buttery note as well. All in all, this definitely isn't my favorite and I wouldn't ever really feel the need to wear it, but I don't hate it either. I can definitely wear it. It's just not something I'd ever immediately grab for.

Edited December 31, 2014 by blacksh33pboi

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I haven't gotten around to reviewing a few scents since they've been aging in my wooden apothecary box for a couple of years. I thought it was about time! I either ordered this or got it as a frimp (can't remember) between 2005-2008.

This has held up pretty well over the years and has mellowed and aged nicely.

In the imp: Dark chocolate and what smells like vetiver and teak wood.Wet: It smells like mild smokey vetiver mingled with cocoa-dusted ripe figs. It has an almost chewy texture, with a faint berry note that is akin to blackberry. I also smell something similar to cedarwood in the background.Drydown: The cocoa has died down and now there is a ripe fig note that is hovering over a soft, dusty wood and musk base. There is a slight oiliness (probably from the palm).I also detect something that is similar to frankincense but it is faint.

An overall great scent!

Edited March 2, 2015 by DeathBlooms

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Dry: This doesn't change much as it dries, except a tinge of the fig starts to sweeten it. It's very much a skin scent when it comes to the cocoa and palm wood, with the throw mostly fig with a faint hint of the cocoa. I wasn't sure what to expect with this since it was a free imp, but it's really quite nice. I'm not sure if it stays on me long enough to order a bottle, but I might like more imps of it at some point.

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Wet: a lovely, very warm woody scent, like the inside of a slightly dusty outside, but well-oiled inside, wooden treasure chest. There's something slightly sweet, which must be the fig, but I don't get any cocoa, which is fine by me.

Dry: much the same.

Throw: low-medium, I can smell it faintly on myself.

I can't really see myself wearing this much, but I think I'd like smelling it on a man, or as a house fragrance. A very lovely, mysterious scent.

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Wet on my skin, the first impression is black vetiver woods and fig sweetness. Then I get a faint, sweet coconut -- is that part of "black palm"? The cocoa is powdery-dry and barely there, just a mini-note of support for the fig.

Once dried, the coconut seems stronger, but still I get vetiver-coconut-fig, with a little wood. The fig is quite a warm, fleshy note that pulls this well away from the vetiver-coconut-Snake Oil of Death Adder.

I wear plain coconut oil a lot as a moisturizer and overnight hair conditioner, so I'm pleased to find another compatible night scent to go with that.

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Drydown: sweet, fruity pencil shavings in a tropical area, like Florida? Once you know everything in here, it's easier to pick out the notes. But I never would have been able to call them out individually.

Dry: I can't tell if I find this feminine or unisex. I think this would smell amazing on the right person, but I'm guessing I amp the palm, and everything else floats to the back and becomes indistinguishable.

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My skin is where fig goes to lie down and die a sad slow death, so I do not have a lot of hope for this one.

Wet: hmm, this is nice - wood, fig, and the slightly musty sweetness of palm sugar. I like this. And the fig is nice. It smells like fig, rather than the flat sadness that is usually fig on me. Feeling good about this!

Much later: fades to a light wood and palm sugar scent. Sweet and a little earthy. The joopman cooks a lot with palm sugar and it is a very comforting and nostalgic scent for me.

Verdict: Not really digging it enough for a bottle, but so glad I got to try this one!.

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Intrigue is totally in my wheelhouse (or one of them, anyway), but somehow I wasn't even aware of it until it was given to me quite recently. I'm not familiar with the black palm note, but on me it reads as quite similar to the coconut husk of Brown Jenkin. So I get earthy cocoa and fig and dry coconut and woods, and it's very much in the same family as Velvet or Gelt-Smeared Dreidel or some of the 13s -- major comfort scents in my book. It dries down fairly true until a warm, comforting, earthy blur.

The throw is low to nonexistent, and it's unisex, so this can be worn by anyone, anywhere. I can see it becoming a real workhorse in my fall/winter scent collection. It's going on my list of GC scents to add to LE orders in the near future.